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South Florida Crime

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – One person is dead after a police-involved shooting in West Miami.

The shooting took place in the 6800 block of SW 21st Street early Saturday morning.

It all started when South Miami Police had a confrontation with a man at SW 80th Street and 66th Avenue. The suspect took off in his car and attempted to run over the South Miami Police officers, according to Miami-Dade Police.

Miami-Dade police joined in the chase which came to a stop at SW 68th Avenue and 21st Street.. At that point, police shot the suspect and he subsequently died on the scene.

“I was scared sure,” said Maria Vicar who lives in the neighborhood. “I see the lights. I try to look through the window of my bedroom to see what happened.”

A total of three Miami-Dade police officers and one South Miami officer were involved in the shooting. Miami-Dade Police are investigating which officer fired the deadly shot.

Investigators said the suspect may have been involved in the robbery of a Rolex watch earlier in the week.

In the robbery, a man tried on a $7,000 Rolex watch at a jewelry store and left the store while still wearing it. He enlisted the help of a child. Sources said the young man was his son. When the pair couldn’t run out of the Luany Jewelry store because the door was locked they kicked out the glass and ran.

While police haven’t confirmed if the shooting victim was the robbery suspect, the owner of the jewelry store said police told him otherwise.

“They said there was a high probability that it is,” said the owner of the jewelry store, Neit Ojeda.
“At the end of the day, you want justice for what happened in the robbery. But it would have been better if he would have turned himself in.”

Police sources said they caught up with the man after they received a tip from his ex-wife. They said she had seen him in the surveillance video robbing the jewelry story on television.